60-day session would give state legislators focus

Posted: Thursday, April 19, 2007

It's unusual that a good idea would emerge in the typically frenetic final days of a state legislative session, but that's what has happened with state Rep. Chuck Sims' call for a constitutional amendment limiting the legislative session to 60 calendar days.

It's unfortunate that Sims, a Republican from the southwest Georgia community of Ambrose, won't have time to make the case for his House Resolution 856 in the current legislative session, now entering its 39th of 40 legislative days, but he should be encouraged to follow through with the proposal in next year's Georgia General Assembly.

Under Sims' proposal, the legislature would meet on the second Monday of January each year "for the purpose of organizing the General Assembly," with the actual legislative session "beginning on the third Monday in January of each year for a period of no longer than 60 consecutive weekdays each year." That differs markedly from the current scheme, under which the legislature convenes on the second Monday of January for "a period of no longer than 40 days in the aggregate." What that means is that legislators can stop the legislative clock - something that's routinely done - thereby stretching the legislative session far beyond 40 calendar days. This year, for instance, lawmakers have been out of session for a matter of weeks as they've dealt with a funding shortfall for the PeachCare insurance program for children of low- and moderate-income families, as well as for spring break and during a budget standoff between the House and Senate.

In a Wednesday report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on his proposal, Sims articulated the common-sense reasoning behind it in a few words, noting that it would force the legislators to work diligently at their jobs because they would "have a specific number of days to get things done."

The Journal-Constitution notes the bill "is already receiving a cool reception from legislative leaders." In registering his opposition to the bill, House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons Island, argued to the Atlanta newspaper that if the legislative session is limited to a specific number of calendar days with no provision for recesses, if something like the PeachCare funding shortfall "or something else comes up that we can't control or we can't foresee, then we've boxed ourselves into a corner."

Well, not exactly. What a specifically limited legislative session would do is force lawmakers to set priorities, and to handle a limited amount of business - aims that already ought to be articles of faith in a legislature now dominated by Republicans, the party of limited government. After all, the only constitutionally mandated duty of the legislature is to set an annual budget for the state.

If an emergency like the PeachCare issue did come up within a 60-calendar-day legislative session, all that would mean is that legislators would have to decide which of the plethora of silly issues that routinely jam the legislative calendar - such as this year's consideration of whether a statue of former Gov. Zell Miller should adorn the Capitol grounds - would have to be jettisoned.

Because it would require amending the state constitution, Sims' bill will have to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the state House and Senate, and then ratified by a majority of the state's voters. Sims' bill will, therefore, be a gut check for legislators, showing whether they're at all interested in giving the people of this state a chance at having a no-nonsense elected state government. It will be interesting to see if Sims' colleagues are willing to accept the challenge implicit in House Bill 856.